The Seeds of Revolution

Arc 1: A Den of Iniquity

After a few days of downtime during which they got to know some of the Kings better, the party was approached by Chen, who asked if they would investigate some archaeological sites on the airless surface of Plooma for him. According to Chen, the artifacts there seemed to indicate that Duros had left their homeworld far earlier than previously suspected and a colony had ended up on Plooma, eventually devolving culturally to a Stone Age level.

The party agreed, and Chen gave them some old but functional vac-suits to use while on the surface. As they headed out toward Japolla, they were stopped by the Kings’ comm officer, Gar Thorne. He told them that he’d detected some strange signals coming from some kind of bunker in Japolla that didn’t match any known Kingslayer or Imperial signals. The party agreed to check out the signals for Thorne on their way through Japolla.

In Japolla, the party trawled for rumors and discovered two things: That Siero Chattza, the trusted Rodian lieutenant of Kingslayers head Myn Pragir, was preparing to make a move to kill him and take his position, and that former Corellian Senator Garm bel Iblis had managed to amass a sizeable fleet — including several Dreadnaughts and at least one Venator-class Star Destroyer — and had been doing enough damage to the Empire to make the Emperor himself sit up and take notice.

Inside the bunker, the party discovered that it had once been a secret biological weapons research facility run by the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars. Corpses were strewn around the living/research level, and the facility was guarded by fearsome GX-1 battle droids. Datapad entries left behind by the dead scientists seemed to indicate that a Neimoidian named Borborygmus Gog had taken control of the facilities after the end of the Clone Wars, supposedly on the orders of Count Dooku, and had placed the bunker in lockdown, telling them that the war raged on and was about to overtake the planet.

Finding a hidden turbolift in the room that was supposed to be Gog’s quarters, the party proceeded to level 3 of the facility, where they found more scientists being kept in tubes for experimentation. After destroying the GX-1 droids defending the level (and after Vessek accidentally killed one of the few living scientists with an otherwise superb shot at a GX-1’s power core), the party continued down to the lowest level of the facility, where they finally encountered the enigmatic Borborygmus Gog.

Gog engaged the party in combat, revealing that he was a shapeshifter. He took on the guises of a wampa ice beast, a reptilian katarn, and an enormous narglatch. Despite his fearsome ability, he was easily overcome by the party and shifted back into his natural form, that of a near-human species known as Shi’ido. He explained that he was an agent of the Empire, tasked with taking over the CIS research lab to concoct a biological agent that would exterminate all life on a planet within hours. He further explained that he had developed such an agent, but it only remained virulent for a few hours while the Emperor had specified it be dangerous for a month or so in order to kill any who tried to investigate the target planet. More exposition revealed that the CIS base in Japolla was chosen for two reasons: Nobody outside of the CIS leadership knew of its existence, and Plooma’s unique geography meant that in case of accident, any outbreak would be restricted to Japolla’s valley.

The party then turned to the prisoners still trapped in the transparisteel cells in the room. One indicated to them that he’d been infected and could not possibly survive, so, at his request, Sala — who had sliced into the lab’s main computer — mercy-killed him by sucking all the air out of his cell. The other prisoner (and the ones on the level above) were freed by Sala.

After denying having ever developed an antidote for the biological agent he’d developed, Gog transformed into a small lizard and attempted to escape, stopped only by Vessek’s quick reflexes. After that they stunned the man and locked him in one of his own transparisteel cells.

Vessek and Jay went up to level 3 to try to help the four formerly imprisoned scientists up there ease back into freedom while Sala tried to get further into the computer’s data. She was temporarily stymied by the heavy security on the system. Meanwhile, Tarquin caught the scientist they’d freed from this level, a Sullustan, up on the events that had happened since the end of the Clone Wars. The Sullustan was surprised, to say the least, to hear that the war had ended right as the lockdown began, and that Chancellor Palpatine had declared himself Emperor. While he and Tarquin synthesized food for everyone, he explained that when Sullust had left the Republic and joined the Separatists, he had become a biological weapons scientist for the CIS so he wouldn’t have to be anywhere near the front lines. Tarquin, in turn, told him of subsequent events on Sullust, including SoroSuub’s takeover and support for Emperor Palpatine.

Around the same time, Vessek determined that three of the scientists on his level had abilities necessary to help Sala slice into the base’s top scientists. In a poorly thought-out move, he gave the three scientists, who had been subsisting on nothing but IV fluids for around three months, a hit of spice, energizing them and bringing them back from their shell-shocked state. Everybody returned to the level 4 control room and ate while Sala and the three scientists began their eight-hour marathon session of slicing into the computer.

After getting some rest, the party awoke to find that Sala had managed to slice through the layers of security in the computer. Unfortunately, that was also when the three scientists helping her crashed from their spice highs, which, in their weakened states, caused two of them to have massive heart attacks. Vessek, realizing his mistake immediately, used his first aid kid and limited medical knowledge to defibrillate and stabilize the pair, saving their lives.

Sala copied the data regarding creation of the biological agent over to a datacard before wiping it from the computer. She found that there was a video file that seemed to be some sort of message. As it turned out, it was a holo message from Emperor Palpatine himself, telling Gog that he was pleased with the operation’s status and to continue making regular progress reports.

While Sala took a much-needed nap, the rest of the party discussed what to do with Gog. He had proven uncooperative and reticent when questioned further, only dropping opaque hints and innuendos. Though the idea of killing him was suggested, it was agreed that he was much more valuable as a captive. Eventually the party-minus-Sala decided to bring him back to the Kings’ HQ with them and the scientist before continuing on to complete Chen’s task. Once Sala awoke and they’d caught her up, they commed Thorne and told him to have a room prepared that would hold the shapeshifter. On their way out, they loaded four Z-95 headhunter simulators onto a hoversled for transport back to the base.

Intelligence head Harlin Braden was delighted that the party had brought back yet another person for her to interrogate and directed them to the room that had been prepared for him. She took the scientists to the conference room for debriefing, promising that they would be treated gently. Chen, after being reassured that the party was on their way to complete his request, immediately set to work hooking up the fighter sims. After a night’s sleep, the party set out for the surface of the planet.

Long story short: The party encountered some archaeologists, who were initially suspicious that the party was trying to steal credit for their dig. Due to some truly spectacular lying by Tarquin, the lead archaeologist was talked down and told the party they could check out one of their not-in-use sites, directing them to it. Upon arriving, the party discovered a couple Duros, clearly not scientists, with handfuls of pottery. It came out that the two Duros were a prehistorian and his brother, planting the archaeological relics (stolen from Duros) to try to make it seem like the Duros had interstellar flight far earlier than they actually did — as well as so the prehistorian could make a name for himself publishing about the findings. He drew a blaster on the party, planning to kill them to keep his secret, but as his brother tried to talk him down, Vessek pulled out his own weapon, prompting the brother to join in. Jay mind-tricked the historian into surrendering while his brother fought on, unwilling to go to prison for attempted murder. He was stunned in short order and the pair were brought before the actual scientists. In the end, it was decided that since the find was never publicly announced, the Duros would return the artifacts to where they belonged and the details of the incident would never be made public.

The party took the bad news back to Chen and then tracked down Meerka Mirke. Mirke told them that she’d left a message for her mysterious benefactor requesting face-to-face communication. Tarquin asked her to mention that they’d captured Gog to entice her employer into helping them out, and Mirke promised to try to get them transport off-world. Shorty afterwards, the party was approached by Ton Caldovar, who told them that, with increased Imperial scrutiny on the planet, he was looking to get the Kings offworld. Impressed with their work so far, he agreed to provide them with limited supplies and offworld transport if they would carry out some official missions for him. The party agreed, then decided to hit up the Z-95 simulators before bed to practice for when they left the planet.

At some point Kyra mentioned that it’d be great if the food synthesizers could be programmed to produce alcohol.

Arc 1: A Den of Iniquity

Ton Caldovar briefed the party on the Imperial base where Deerk Mirke was being held. Because the Kings focused their attention on the Kingslayers rather than taking on the big-league Imperials, they didn’t have much information about the base’s layout, but he was able to tell them the layout of the public area and the approximate complement of troops kept there. During the subsequent discussion of tactics, Tarquin and Vessek convinced Ton to have Unit Aurek attack a power station in Arevv City to draw troops away from the base.

With that settled, Vessek suggested a combination of noisy and stealthy tactics. Tarquin, Sala, and Iyanjay would sneak into the base (disguised as mechanics at Sala’s suggestion) after which he would create a diversion to draw the remaining troops away from them. To aid them in this, the Kings’ Duros quartermaster and tinkerer Arwel Chen upgraded some of their weapons, supplied them with quiet nonlethal options, and gave Vessek a bunch of Energy Balls, including a modified one to which he’d added a timer mechanism.

As the party entered Arevv City, they heard a distant detonation that indicated that Unit Aurek had given them their diversion. As they approached the base, ten troops exited, heading for the disturbance. Vessek split off, hotwiring a speeder and waiting nearby for the insertion team’s signal.

Tarquin, Sala, and Iyanjay entered the base, posing as mechanics who had been called in to take care of a classified mechanical problem. The secretary couldn’t find a record of them being scheduled, but due to some quick thinking by Tarquin sent them to talk to the base captain.

On their way to see the captain, the group overheard a comm conversation between the Dark Jedi who had attacked them and Darth Vader. Vader was pleased that she had killed Master Tan Juko but enraged that Iyanjay and the others had escaped. The Dark Jedi swore to hunt them down and destroy them.

The party hid from the Dark Jedi by entering the captain’s office. They explained again about being hired to fix something classified and the captain, completely taken in, sighed and told them that they frequently had problems with the hydraulics on one of the cell doors and that that was probably the issue. He gave them clearance to enter the classified area of the base.

Once they were inside, they signaled to Vessek to start his attack. Vessek obligingly blew a hole in the fence, attracting the few troops who remained in the base. Nobody took a second look at the small group of mechanics, but one of the troops headed off toward the cell area instead of the battle. While Vessek slaughtered the base’s troops — though losing their escape landspeeder in the process — the other three made their way to the cell area, where Iyanjay used the Force to convince one guard to go join the battle outside. She slammed the other one into the floor with the Force, and Tarquin held a blaster to his head and ordered him to open the cell with Mirke inside. After retrieving Mirke, they locked the grunt in the cell himself.

On their way out they met up with Vessek, who after wiping out the army troops had blown the hell out of one of the turbolaser turrets guarding the perimeter (accidentally killing its gunner in the process). As the alarm shifted to a new signal, the quartet plus Mirke made their escape.

Upon their return, Caldovar informed the party that he’d had some recon done on the ship they’d arrived on. It was guarded by five Kingslayer troops, and there were probably more within, but the ramp was down, so they could probably fight their way in if they wanted to. In return, Vessek told him that the Imperial base was half destroyed and all but unguarded, making this an ideal time to strike. Caldovar called Kyra Kesyk and told her to bring Unit Besh to attack.

All of them had left something of value on the ship, so they made their way over, quickly wiping out the Kingslayer guards. On the ship, Tarquin retrieved his Senatorial robes, Sala a model of her ship, and Vessek some spice. Iyanjay found a coded note from her master telling her to access a DNA-encoded message on the bridge. While Vessek stood guard outside, the other three took on a trio of Kingslayer Elites who were investigating the bridge, leaving one alive but unconscious. In the bridge computer, Iyanjay discovered a holorecording of Master Juko telling her where to find her lightsaber. Sala attempted to find a flight plan in the main computers, but the system was organized in such a byzantine fashion that it was impossible. The group briefly considered stealing the ship and blasting their way off the planet, but the ship’s controls had been physically removed from the console.

Before departing, the group engaged in some light looting of the first class cabins. There they found a paranoid man with a slugthrower. Tarquin talked him down from shooting everyone and they discovered that his name was Jax and he had hidden when stormtroopers had combed over the ship the previous day, killing any still on board. They brought him and the unconscious Kingslayer back to the Kings HQ, where they handed them both over to the Kings’ intelligence head Harlin Braden.

The party headed to the mess for a late dinner of badly synthesized food. Chen burst in, excitedly asking how his modified explosive had worked. Vessek assured him that he’d used it to take down a turbolaser turret in suitably dramatic fashion and asked if Chen had any more timed energy balls. Chen promised to make him more and hurried off to his lab, completely forgetting to eat.

As the party continued to eat and converse, Kyra Kesyk returned with the remainder of Unit Besh, all looking like they’d been through hell. Kyra told them that they’d been pushing back the remaining base guards and had been ready to overcome them when the Dark Jedi returned to the base, wiping out half of the unit almost in an instant. She continued into the base, looking for something, while Unit Besh fell back, taking even more casualties as the Imperials shot at the retreating troops. The party expressed their sympathy and Kyra declared her intention to someday kill the Dark Jedi, though she allowed that Iyanjay did have the prior claim.

Shortly before the party turned in for the night, they were joined by Mirke, who, as thanks for rescuing her husband, revealed that she was not an operative of Garm bel Iblis as they’d been told, but part of a rebel cell funded by someone very high up in the Galactic Senate. She promised to contact her patron and put in a word for the group and departed. Tarquin theorized that her patron was Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan, but Kyra denied the possibility, claiming that he was the most loyalist member of the entire Senate.

After some discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of spice, the party turned in for the night.

Arc 1: A Den of Iniquity

Each member of the party was smuggled onto Plooma by the rogue Jedi Master Tan Juko, who was trying to get them into contact with the local resistance movement. Unfortunately, his contact, Mirke, had been compromised and the party encountered an ambush in the Bantha’s Head Cantina. The four strangers quickly took charge of the situation and wiped the floor with their attackers. They introduced themselves as Iyanjay, Sala’al Din, Tarquin Victus, and Vessek.

They made their way to the on-planet contact’s shop as Juko had instructed them, only to find that there too was an ambush — this time Imperial stormtroopers! While the party deliberated fighting their way into the shop, Yanjay felt a disturbance in the Force and realized her master was in danger.

The party rushed back to the spaceport, finding a squad of stormtroopers watching a duel between Master Juko and a mysterious Dark Jedi. Their attack caught the stormtroopers by surprise, and the arrival of Ton Caldovar allowed them to hold off the counterattack long enough to escape, though they took heavy damage and Sala fell unconscious. As they effected their escape, Yanjay fell to her knees and cried “NOOOOOOOOOO!” as the death of her Master rippled through the Force.

When they reached the Kings’ base, they were all given medical treatment and allowed to rest for the night. The following morning, Caldovar met the party and told them what the situation was on Plooma. He initially told them they needed to leave the base immediately, but he eventually offered to let them stay a while if they would rescue Mirke’s husband, who had been captured and was being held in the Imperial base on Arevv city awaiting transfer to Eriadu. They accepted on the condition they were given intelligence and resources before making the attack. Caldovar agreed to their terms and so a partnership was forged.